North designates eight new naval firing zones

JoongangDaily ^ | 2/20/2010 | Lee Min-yong, Jeong Yong-soo

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

North Korea has unilaterally designated eight areas in the waters north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea on the west coast of the peninsula and the East Sea as “naval firing zones” for three days starting today.

The South Korean Defense Ministry said yesterday that the North announced the zones via Navtex, the Russian maritime broadcasting system. It said the zones were in effect for all three days between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m.

It is the fourth time the North has declared naval firing zones since Jan. 25.

The four zones in the Yellow Sea include areas near Baengnyeong and Daecheong islands. The remaining zones in the East Sea are near North and South Hamgyong, the North’s northernmost provinces.

“The reclusive country has forward deployed a number of artillery pieces on the west coast of the peninsula after an inter-Korean naval skirmish near Daecheong last November,” said a South Korean defense official on condition of anonymity. “This is a routine situation that is part of the North’s winter military exercise.

The ministry expected that artillery firings and armor maneuver exercises in the North will last until the end of next month, as usual.

The North fired a barrage of coastal artillery shells and multilaunch rockets into the sea in North Korea’s own territory north of the NLL, the de facto maritime border between two Koreas, over three days beginning on Jan. 27.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The Northern Limit Line shown in red separating North and South Korea

[bruinbirdman]

On the map, Baengnyeong and Daecheong islands are those two islands in the upper left of the map, south of the red line.

They look pretty far north of the DMZ but, actually, they are right on the 38th parallel. They belong to South Korea.

yitbos

[bruinbirdman]

Baengnyeong is within 8 miles of mainland N. Korea.

yitbos

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Well, they have costal artillery have some WWII vintage 105 mm artillery guns. The biggest they got is a 170mm gun which has a range of 50,000 meters